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Gordon Pirie 1955

Admin August 4, 2025

Born in Leeds on February 10, 1931, Gordon Pirie has the distinction of being the first full-time athlete in Britain, at a time when athletes received no government or independent funding. Pirie was renowned for his high-intensity, daily training schedule, reportedly covering 200 miles or more every week, but he also to took a systematic approach to training, as espoused by German coach Waldemar Gerschler, which included high volume interval running sessions.

A long-distance specialist, Pirie set five world records during his career, notably for 5,000m in Bergen, Norway on June 19, 1956, for 3,000m in Trondheim, Norway three days later and for 3,000m, again, in Malmö, Sweden on September 4, 1956, where he took nearly three seconds off his personal best. Remarkably, though, he never won a major international title. The closest he came was at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, when he won the silver medal in the 5,000m, behind pre-race favourite, and easy winner, Vladimir Kuts of the Soviet Union. Pirie also won the bronze medal in the same event at the 1958 European Athletics Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.

In 1955, Gordon Pirie was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year largely as a result of beating Emil ‘Czech Locomotive’ Zátopek three times during the year, which catapulted him to stardom. Zátopek was, and is, best known for winning the gold medal in the 5,000m, 10,000m and marathon at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, the latter coming in his first attempt over 26 miles and 385 yards. Pirie recorded his most notable victory over the man he sought to emulate over 10,000m at the White City Stadium, London on October 10, 1955 during a London v. Prague athletics match. In fact, Pirie beat compatriot Ken Norris, with Zátopek, who had held the world record at the distance since October 22, 1949, and improved it three times in the interim, only third.

Pirie emigrated to New Zealand in 1957 and, while he competed for Great Britain at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, but could finish only eighth in his heat in the 5,000m, thus failing to qualify for the final, and only tenth in the final-only 10,000m. He retired from the track in 1961.

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David Broom 1960

Admin August 4, 2025

The Games of the XVII Olympiad were held in Rome, Italy between August 25 and September 11, 1960, such that the results were fresh in the minds of readers of the ‘Radio Times’ when they voted for Sportsview Personality of the Year. In fact, the first three in the public poll were medallists, of one colour or another, in Rome. Equestrian David Broom, who won a bronze medal in the individual show jumping, finished first, racewalker Donald Thompson, who won a gold medal in the 50km walk, finished second and swimmer Anita Lonsbrough, who won a gold medal in the women’s 200m breaststroke, in a world record time of 2:49.5, finished third. Thompson and Lonsbrough were, in fact, the only British gold medallists at Rome 1960.

Born in Cardiff on St. David’s Day 1940, 20-year-old Broome and his horse, Sunsalve, had to settle for a podium finish in Rome, behind Italian brothers Raimondo and Piero D’Inzeo. It was a similar story in the Show Jumping World Championships, held on the island of Lido, in the Venetian Lagoon, immediately after the Summer Olympics. Defending champion Raimondo d’Inzeo and his horse, Gowran Girl, won the individual gold medal in that event, too, with Broome once again collecting a bronze medal.

He competed in the 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1988 Olympics and won individual bronze medals in 1960 on Sunsalve and in 1968 on his best-known horse Mr Softee. In 1960, he was also voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and at the 1972 Games served as the Olympic flag bearer for Great Britain. Nevertheless, Broome had done enough to become the first equestrian to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year. At the award ceremony, to his surprise, Broome was joined on stage by Sunsalve and, at the behest of presenter Peter Dimmock, mounted up and rode his former Olympic partner from the studio.

David Broome went on to enjoy a show jumping career lasting over 40 years and, between 1960 and 1991, won 14 Olympic, World and European medals. Highlights included another Olympic individual bronze medal on Mr. Softee at Mexico 1968, and an individual gold medal on Beethoven at the World Show Jumping Championships in La Baule, France in 1970.

Dorothy Hyman 1963

Admin August 4, 2025

In 1963, athlete Dorothy Hyman was voted Sportsview Personality of the Year or, in other words, BBC Personality of the Year, largely in recognition of her achievements at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia in late 1962. Hyman topped the poll ahead of swimmer Bobby McGregor, who broke the world record for the 100m freestyle twice at Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) National Championships, and racing driver Jim Clark, who won seven Grands Prix and his first Formula One World Drivers’ Championship with three races to spare.

The best British female sprinter of her era, and one of the greatest of all time, Hyman was still only 17 when, alongside Heather Armitage, June Paul and Madeleine Weston, she won a gold medal in the women’s 4 x 110yd relay at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, setting a new world record of 45.37 seconds in the process. She subsequently won a silver medal in the women’s 4 x 100m relay at the 1958 European Athletics Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, silver again in the women’s 100m at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and bronze in the women’s 200m at the same Games.

In 1962, though, Hyman won six more medals, three at the European Athletics Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and three more in the aforementioned British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In Belgrade, in September, she won the gold medal in the women’s 100m and in Perth, in November, two more, in the women’s 100yd and women’s 200yd events. In so doing, she interrupted the Australian dominance of both events, which had not been won by a non-Australian since 1934 and 1938, respectively.

Alongside Daphne Arden, Mary Rand and Janet Simpson, Hyman also won a silver medal in the women’s 4 x 100m relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In a memorable final, all three medallists, Poland, the United States and Great Britain broke the previous world record. Hyman retired from competitive athletics in 1964, aged just 23, although she did come out of retirement, briefly, to compete at the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA) Championships in 1969.

Christopher Chataway 1954

Admin August 4, 2025

In 1954, athlete Christopher Chataway won the inaugural BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, or Sports Review of the Year, as it was known at the time. Fellow athlete Roger Bannister finished second in the public postal vote, ahead of pioneering equestrian Patricia Smythe, who had became a household name in the years following World War II.

On October 13, 1954, Chataway recorded a a dramatic victory, but just 0.1 seconds, over Soviet athlete Vladimir Kuts in a televised 5,000m race at White City Stadium, London, which was broadcast to 12 million viewers. In so doing, he ran 13:51.6, thereby taking exactly five seconds off Kuts’ world record, which he had set in Bern, Switzerland just over six weeks previously.

By that stage, he had already won a gold medal in the men’s 3 miles event at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver, Canada during the British Empire and Commonwealth Games. At the same Games, Bannister defeated by-then world record holder John Landy, of Australia, in the final of the men’s 1 mile event, dubbed the ‘Miracle Mile’, with both men running under four minutes.

In a memorable year for British athletics, perhaps most famously of all, Chataway also played his part when Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile at the Iffley Road track in Oxford on May 6, 1954. Alongside Christopher Brasher, he acted as a pacemaker for Bannister, leading him into the final 250 yards on so, on his way to a historic time of 3:59.4. That world record lasted only until June 21, 1954, when the aforementioned John Landy ran 3:58.0 at the Paavo Nurmi Stadium in Turku, Finland.

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Chataway went on to compete at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, but could finish only eleventh, behind Kuts, in the final of the 5,000m, having suffered stomach cramps. He retired from international competition shortly afterwards. Chataway subsequently became a newsreader, a Conservative Member of Parliament and, in 1995, received a knighthood for his services to the aviation industry, which he served as chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). He died of cancer in January 2014, aged 82.